Chapter 12. Epilogue
"Nurse! Nurse! They seem to be waking up." It was Alice's mother, Gwen that
called. She had stayed with the couple in adjoining beds for most of the week
they'd been there. Bill's father was alongside her. Together with Alice's
father, they had watched the pair as they lay in a weird coma for nearly a week.
The doctors were intrigued. The coma was most unusual. The pair muttered and
screamed and seemed to be in communication with each other but not with the
outside world. Stripes inexplicably appeared and disappeared on their bodies and
all the while their wrists remained firmly clasped.
Bill's eyes opened first. "Where are we?"
"Leeds General Infirmary," the nurse spoke quietly, "Lie still. Your heads must
have taken quite a knock. I'll get the doctor now."
"Alice? Alice dear. Are you awake too?" Bill asked.
Gwen was disturbed a little by his use of the term 'dear' but replied that
Alice's eyes were opening and closing. She called several times to her daughter
but it wasn't to her mother that she addressed her first words.
"Bill?" Alice spoke quietly and with some disbelief, "Are we alive? Have we
landed in some other queer place?" It was the nurse who replied, giving the same
answer she had to Bill, adding for them not to talk for a bit longer.
Gwen burst into tears and she and her husband enthused over their daughters
return to 'the land of the living' as she put it. Half an hour later, Bill's
father, who everyone called Will, explained to them how he had found the pair.
"Russ came back and started barking at me, something he never does. He then kept
dashing to the door and herding me out like I was a sheep. It was then I knew
something was wrong and followed him up the hill. Saw the crashed bike and
climbed the wall. Found you two holding hands and unconscious. By the marks in
the grass I saw you had slid down quite a ways and were near to the edge. It
didn't look as if you would slide further so I called the ambulance and they
brought you here. They had problems because you wouldn't let go of each other.
Your bike is in my barn miss. It'll need a new front wheel." Gwen and her
husband tried ask a million questions at once but the doctor came and asked them
to leave for a while and after examining them again, told them to rest and
ordered the beds to be moved further apart now they were no longer clasping each
other so desperately.
"No!" Alice cried out, "Leave them. So much has happened in this last week, I
need to know he's here." She put out her arm and the two clasped each other.
"Alright, just for a little longer. It will be interesting to know what you were
dreaming about and why the stripes and screaming as though you were both being
thrashed at the same time. It seemed you were both having the same dream and you
were both in it. Now rest some more." With that the doctor left and the nurse
took over.
She smiled at them. "I've never seen a pair dream like you two. At times it
seemed as if you were making love but were not joined together except by your
wrists. And what's more peculiar, you've both lost your pubic hair and Alice,
after the first time you stained the sheet with blood and semen. That was some
dream."
"You mean we have been in bed in this hospital since last Sunday?" Alice
haltingly asked, "We've not been..." She broke off deciding not to say anything
further until she could talk with Bill. Then thought, "I shouldn't know Bill.
All I remember before our fall down the hole, is him jumping the wall and
grabbing my hand."
When the nurse left them, she turned to Bill, "Bill? If I said white rabbits to
you, what would you answer?"
"Peter and Petra."
"And the devils?"
"Eric and Elaine."
"So we did go through this together."
"Seems like it. Alice I guess we had better not say anything about this to
anyone. Let's just say we had a nightmare and don't wish to bring back the
horror again. Don't think that will satisfy my father but it will have to do
until we can work something better out." Bill gave Alice's hand a squeeze.
"It won't satisfy mother either but we need to discus this in private. How you
actually feeling Bill?"
"Okay but starving!"
*****
"Well neither of us can come up with a rational explanation," Alice remarked.
They had been sitting in Bill's bedroom for over an hour discussing the past
week. So far they had fobbed off the questions thrown at them by their parents
by saying the dream was fading fast. They didn't want to recall it, but each
knew the dream was still vivid and very real. "I don't know how you managed to
take my virginity when we were apart, She continued," I know my hymen is gone
and I can well believe what the nurse said about staining the sheets that time
we did it together. And she hinted there were other stains as well then and
every day that week. Yet we were both in what appeared to them to be a coma."
"Did you mind me doing it? You seemed to enjoy the sex when we were in bed
together in our dream world."
"I seemed to enjoy it like you say. Somehow though, I feel cheated. I keep
wondering if I actually had the real thing. Did you really do it or was it
imagination and if it was imagination, how come I bled?" Alice's voice took on a
puzzled tone.
"Alice." Bill pulled her close as they sat on the bed, kissed her and then
started to fondle her breasts until she winced.
"They're still a little tender, Bill. What about your chest?" Alice asked.
"A little Alice but nothing major. Only if I play with them like I'm doing with
yours." He paused and then went on, "Would you like to find out what sex is like
now? I would love to find out too. Remember we were both virgins last week. Did
we experience the real thing or was it we both imagined in the way we wanted?"
Shortly after they were both naked on the bed and experiencing the same
sensations and having the same stimuli as when they were underground in
Moorland.
"However it happened, whatever the truth behind this, I am glad it happened,"
Bill stated. "Without it I would never have met you. I would still be a shy boy
without a girlfriend. I hope you will continue to be that Alice. I love you. You
know that I think."
"Yes. I too would be a shy girl just interested in computers and pushing two
wheels up hills in the fastest possible time." She paused, "Bill do you think
that contraceptive injection was real? I do hope so."
"I wonder if the other characters were real?" Bill exclaimed, "The Rabbits, the
Duchess and all the others."
"Well I know a way to find out if one of them is. Micky Mole. He said to see him
if I wanted a summer job. I've still got the rejection letter so I think I'll
call in just before term finishes and see. Too much to do to get through my
exams for me to do anything now. I did log on to the MJFgames web site and found
a picture of him. He is the chief programmer, Michael Farrow, so it looks like
it's all real in that sense.
"Looks like you might get that job after all, Alice and perhaps a cock up your
bum!"
Five weeks later Alice took the bus into Leeds and entered the offices of MJF
Games. Sue sat at reception looking bored but still typing into her computer she
asked, "Can I help you miss?" She barely deigned to look up.
"Alice Williamson to see Mr. Farrow." Alice tried to sound important.
"Do you have an appointment, Miss?" Again the bored voice. "I don't see one in
his diary."
"No, but he'll see me." Alice hoped and prayed he would.
"Sorry Miss. Mr. Farrow is busy right now. Do you wish to make an appointment? I
may be able to fit you one in next week if the matter is urgent."
"I've come for a job."
"Then you'll have to fill in an application form and return it to me. I doubt if
you'll be very successful though. We don't need more staff at the moment."
"I've already filled in the form and you rejected it. Now I wish to see Mr.
Farrow personally."
"Sorry. He's too busy and I short list the applications. Try again next year."
Sue turned back to her typing dismissing the teenager.
Alice, angry at her treatment leaned over and switched the monitor off.
Surprised Sue looked straight at Alice. "I'm going to call security."
"If you value you job you'd better call Micky and tell him Alice is here and
wishes an interview for the job he promised last Easter." Alice almost spat out
the words.
Sue hesitated for a moment and then pressed Micky's phone button. "Sorry to
disturb you Mr. Farrow," she said sang sweetly, "But there is a young girl here,
says her name is Alice. She's says she come for the job you promised at
Eastertime."
Alice heard the phone almost drop and replaced without any answer. Sue looked up
and grinned, "So much for your job." Seconds later, Micky burst into reception,
gave Alice a hug, asked how she was and how the clock project worked out. Alice
didn't have chance to answer any questions before she was ushered into a large
office.
"Are you and Bill still an item?" asked Micky. Millie joined them from a side
room.
Alice knew the job interview would be a sham. "Yes, we seem to be," she
answered, "Although we only get to see each other at weekends when he can get
away from college. That has finished for the summer now so we are hoping to see
more of each other."
"What sort of story did you tell when you came round?" enquired Millie.
"We decided to treat it as a nightmare which for some inexplicable reason we
shared," admitted Alice, "but no one could make more sense out of it than we
can. How on earth could we be in two places at once? Or be in one place and live
a life somewhere else?"
"All I can tell you is that it is advanced virtual reality. If you work here
long enough, you may begin to get the idea but most of the participants don't
know. What I can't understand is how you picked our signals up. There must
actually be a fault in that hillside. We do meet under there but the place is
not as it seems. You must have uploaded our interactive programme into your
brains when you were unconscious. Most guests go away for the period and lie in
comfortable beds in the chamber and the scenarios take place in their minds too
but even I didn't realise it would work over a distance once the programme was
uploaded into your minds. The programme is horrendously expensive so like you
were told. Only the rich can afford it." Micky tried to explain.
"How is it we felt the pain, our skin blistered and welted and then healed
almost miraculously? Yet the contraceptive jab lasted three months. Or at least
I hope it did."
"Part of the programming. You received an actual jab. Judith is a real doctor. I
gather she's taken a sabbatical year to sort herself out and won't be coming in
August. The pain and welts were in your mind."
"But my virginity? That went too." Alice persisted.
"You imagined it happening and it did. Sorry Alice the programming is far to
complex to explain until you have more experience, and I don't mean that
unkindly." Micky decided not to explain any more to her but went on, "How do you
feel about going to the August week?" We can sponsor you and take part of it
from your wages. You would know what I would want in return," warned Micky.
"My bum!" smiled Alice, "I've been trying to keep myself open there in case we
went back Micky." She still called them by their mole names even though she knew
they were Michael Farrow and Susan Bishop, his personal assistant. "I would have
to consult with Bill first but I expect he is keen to get his cock in me again
just when he wants and not just when we can get ourselves together and alone.
I'm not so sure he wants a cock up his arse again though. Is this really a job
interview?"
"Yes and no. How did you do with the clock project?"
"Top marks after I had spent a hour convincing the tutor it was my work and I
had very little input from elsewhere. My tutor admitted he couldn't have done it
that way."
"What I am going to suggest, Alice is this. You can see this isn't really a big
firm. There is only me doing most of the design work, Sue out there doing and
bit of the paper work and sort of running the office."
"And putting off people like me," smiled Alice.
"That too otherwise I would be inundated with calls. Milly here, whose real name
is Susan, does the sales and looks after me, and a few others doing the
production of CD's packaging etc. For the first week I would like you to
understudy and help with the projects I am working on, then I have an idea for a
game, an adult game that we could use at the club. It's based on the simple
child's game I designed years ago and which was popular for a while. It's been a
project I have wanted to work on for years but never had the time. If it is a
success, then it could be a money spinner and will be more than worth your
sponsorship. In any case I would pay you a reasonable rate."
"And expect me to bend over your desk as and when required?"
"You know him well enough already," laughed Susan, "And it will save mine!"
Finis
